A San Diego record store owner says human waste outside his shop and a naked man walking inside are just some of the challenges he faces daily in East Village — issues he's documented through hundreds of city reports.
A new $50 million investment in affordable housing and senior homelessness could offer some relief, but questions remain about whether it will be enough.
Caleb, who has owned his record store in East Village for 7 years, said he submitted hundreds of reports through the city's Get It Done app trying to get help.
"We're talking hundreds and hundreds of reports that I've submitted," Caleb said.
His requests are straightforward.
"I'm just asking for a clear street so that people can walk into my business," Caleb said.
While on site at Normal Records, Caleb's record store in the East Village, I witnessed numerous people experiencing homelessness on the sidewalks. By the time I returned a few hours later to film, the sidewalk had been filled with tents.
Three blocks from his shop, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, Irwin Jacobs, and Father Joe's Villages announced a major new investment aimed at addressing homelessness in the city.
The $50 million donation comes with a five-year plan to build more housing and expand services to get people off the streets. They say 1 in 3 people living unsheltered are over the age of 55. They say, of them, most are experiencing it for the first time.
I asked Mayor Gloria about Caleb's Get It Done reports and whether more shelter is truly the solution to the problems in East Village.
"Even when we have that housing, it is true that people will be offered a shelter bed and they will refuse it, because they're deep in mental health or addiction challenges," Gloria said, pointing at state laws which prohibit taking folks experiencing homelessness to mental health resources without their consent.
Gloria also encouraged business owners like Caleb to continue to make reports, saying that police can cite people obstructing the sidewalk or arrest people engaging in illegal activity.
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